We’re 3 weeks until the 2010 WLA Conference kicks off. Our program is headed to the printers after 1000 drafts. We’ll have more than 200 people from 10 countries. It’s been a year and a half in planning. Brian Turner, Mark Boal, Dexter Filkins, and Benjamin Busch headline.

My latest piece is a flash creative non-fiction piece set outside Grants Pass, Oregon. The quick and dirty is when I was 19 I was swimming with some friends when someone behind our group pulled a gun at a kid not ten feet away from us. As you can imagine, action ensued, but the thing I’ll never forget is the calmness, not only of the targeted young man, but of the 911 operator I called … Continued

My good friend, Brandon Lingle, shot the cover for the latest Blue Earth Review. Check it out.

Finished: 1. Stiff by Mary Roach: About cadavers and morality and preservation and ritual. Incredibly insightful and humorous. 2. We Regret to Inform You that Tomorrow We Will be Killed with our Families by Philip Gourevitch. About Rwanda, the history, the atrocities, the good and bad and gray. Heartbreaking and necessary. I’ll be teaching this book in my senior capstone course in the fall. 3. Rock Springs by Richard Ford. This is my third time … Continued

I’ve just returned from a research trip to Northern California where I went to study the Northeastern Maidu Tribe, the Ishi Wilderness, and a Spanish mission. You can see some of the photos from the trip below. Fortunately, I have boatloads of information; unfortunately, I have no idea when I’m going to have the time to cull and craft. If you are in the area, Roseville has a new and impressive Maidu museum/heritage site. Certainly … Continued